Silent Knights: The Unspoken, the Unspeaking, and the Unspeakable in Courtly Narrative. Michael Wenthe (wenthe@american.edu)

That's just from a quick skim; please add what I've missed in the comments.

Also, if we had a contest for longest name for a medievalist organization, I'm sure the "Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Villains of the Matter of Britain and the Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages" would win. The International Marie de France Society is sponsoring two sessions with titles I love: "Death by Hot Tub: Performances of Equitan" and "Tub Tales: Equitan and Other Short Narratives involving Adventures in a Tub." A question that has long plagued me is being posed at this conference ("The Enigma of Medieval Gruit: What Were Ales Like before the Advent of Hops?"). And I did notice that there is a proposed session on "Medieval Cougars" -- that would be the medieval women of a certain age who, well, you know. Right?

We're looking for papers on the relationship between Syon and any neighboring communities that influenced and were influenced by Syon's prominent role in the religious culture of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century England. For instance: Sheen Charterhouse, the royal court, local lay readers, aristocratic patrons, visiting pilgrim populations, urban manuscript workshops, and London print shops; likewise, Syon's neighbors close at heart but further afield - the Bridgettine motherhouse at Vadstena, the Bridgettine houses across Europe, and Carthusian houses across England and abroad - and its neighbors after the Dissolution: sympathetic Continental communities in the Low Countries, France, and Portugal. (Email syonabbeysociety@gmail.com or laura.miles@gmail.com)www.syoabbeysociety.com

I am also quite enamoured (especially since I am no longer organizing them next year and can enjoy from afar!) of the international piers plowman society's Langland's Memories (to feature the marvellous Ruth Evans) and Person, Persona, and Personification (to feature the magnificent Elizabeth Fowler). Slots genuinely open for submissions in both, come one come all!

I just have to add this! I would totally submit to this session, if I weren't organizing it.

Symposium on Teachers and Students in the Middle Ages (May 12-15, 2011)

The Medieval Studies Program at Southern Methodist University invites contributions to a session on medieval teachers and students for the 46th International Congress on Medieval Studies, May 12-15, 2011, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The richness of recent work on medieval rhetoric and grammar demonstrates a growing scholarly interest in the content and form of teaching in the Middle Ages. Rita Copeland and Ineke Sluiter’s _Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300-1475_ (2009), Marjorie Curry Woods’ _Classroom Commentaries: Teaching the Poetria nova across Medieval and Renaissance Europe_ (2010), and the special issue of _New Medieval Literatures_ on “Medieval Grammar and the Literary Arts” edited by Copeland, Chris Cannon, and Nicolette Zeeman (2009) reveal an understanding that the intellectual products of the Middle Ages, whether literary, philosophical, or even musical, were intimately bound up with the basic classroom pedagogy used to teach grammar and rhetoric. If the subjects studied throughout the Middle Ages are essential to understanding the intellectual and creative legacy of the period, then the teachers and students who transmitted and engaged with these ideas bear further examination as well.

We seek papers that address the complex relationships and encounters between teachers and students, using a variety of methodological approaches. We hope to bring into conversation scholars working in a broad spectrum of fields, such as literature, art history, music, history, philosophy. Papers might focus on: representations of teachers and/or students in art and literature, historical teachers and students, the role of emotions and affect in teaching, child and adult learners in the Middle Ages, and the ties of violence and love between teachers and students. We also invite papers that use material from a variety of genres, including but not limited to art, hagiographies and other vitae, letters, grammatical texts and pedagogical dialogues.

Please send abstracts and a completed Participant Information Form (http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/submissions/index.html#PIF) by September 15 to Irina Dumitrescu at idumitrescu(at)smu.edu .

As the organizer for the "Medieval Cougars" panel, please submit if you're interested! There's so many to choose from--the Wife of Bath, Guinevere, Lady Bertilak, etc. You can send abstracts to chmcnabb@mail.usf.edu. Or, if you're not able to submit, come join us!